Love Me More

Episode 27

There’s a dog that drools when a bell rings, right? Even though Si-yul was usually busy sleeping during class, he remembered that experiment.

Instead of ringing a bell, Woo Hyun-se probably shook a yogurt drink at a specific time, based on this historical experiment. While it’s hard to distinguish between conditioning and reflexes, at this time, even seeing an empty bottle of yogurt drink naturally made Woo Hyun-se dominate Si-yul’s thoughts.

Si-yul fiddled with his phone incessantly, then pressed his lips together thinly as he pulled up the number. Despite the time he spent hesitating, he pressed the call button quickly. The dial tone started.

He was partly anxious that he might hear someone else’s moans like last time. Woo Hyun-se was a promiscuous person. He could be playing around with anyone on any given night. Just as Si-yul had picked up someone at the club, Woo Hyun-se might have too.

“Yeah,” Woo Hyun-se answered.

He didn’t even say hello. That was typical of Woo Hyun-se. Si-yul’s tightly closed lips parted.

“…Are you still awake?”

“I didn’t know when you’d call. Is it over?”

“Yes. It’s over now.”

Si-yul sat with his legs stretched out. His anxiety melted away at the voice flowing towards him. At least it seemed he wasn’t with someone else.

“Are you coming to pick me up?”

At this late hour.

“Of course.”

A snort-like laugh escaped before he could suppress it. Si-yul pretended to sniff and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand.

“Then I’ll wait for you.”

He hung up and sent the address. He thought about staying on the call, but remembering a news report that talking while driving was as dangerous as drunk driving, he forced himself to end it.

The time waiting for Woo Hyun-se to arrive felt long and boring. He couldn’t concentrate on games and kept checking the time repeatedly. Five minutes felt like ten, and ten minutes felt like thirty. When he thought a lot of time must have passed, only one minute had gone by.

It was inexplicably cold. Although the temperature was still above freezing, the biting cold felt like a midwinter knife-edge wind. He hunched his neck and stood up, stomping his feet, but the chill wouldn’t easily subside. The idea of going into a nearby convenience store only occurred to him after shivering in the cold for quite a while.

Si-yul hurried into a nearby convenience store. As he warmed his frozen body in the heated air, he habitually picked up a yogurt drink and a less sweet, warm bottled drink for Woo Hyun-se. Just as he was about to pay, small square boxes on the counter caught his eye.

“…”

Come to think of it, he had gone to a motel to spend the night with someone without preparing anything. Si-yul glanced at the boxes, pretending to look at other items.

They were colorful and varied. Next to them was a box containing several single-use gel packets. While he had seen condoms many times, he hadn’t seen gel even when he worked at a convenience store, so he lingered in front of them for a while.

The world has really improved. Seeing adult products at a convenience store.

It might be because this was near an entertainment district. While enjoying the sight, Si-yul quickly grabbed the nearest condom and gel, hiding them under other items as he approached the counter. Despite his attempt to conceal them, the employee scanned the barcodes of the items at the bottom with an utterly indifferent expression.

As soon as he finished paying, Si-yul quickly stuffed the items into his pocket as if hiding them. His heart pounded as if he was committing a worse crime than delivering drugs. One pocket held the warm drink for Woo Hyun-se, while the other held the two impulsively purchased items. Si-yul fiddled more with the opposite pocket than the one with the drink to warm his hands.

He probably wouldn’t use them right away, but…

There was no need to return them. It’s not like he’d never use them, and when the opportunity came, he would. He took his hand out of his pocket and went outside. He had thought about staying inside the convenience store to avoid the cold, but given what he had bought, he felt uncomfortable being in the same space as the employee.

Woo Hyun-se arrived a few minutes later. Before he could get out of the car, Si-yul quickly approached, bent at the waist, and tapped on the window. Woo Hyun-se appeared through the lowered window. His hair tips were damp, as if he had just washed and come out. Si-yul unconsciously touched his own hair. It felt dry and brittle.

As soon as he got into the car, Si-yul fumbled in his pocket and put the glass bottle drink in the cup holder. It was still warm.

“I bought this for you, CEO. Drink it while it’s warm.”

Woo Hyun-se smiled at the glass bottle as if looking at a small gift brought by a cat. Si-yul glanced at that smile and then turned his gaze to the window, burying himself in the backrest. Maybe because he had come in from the cold outside to the warm inside, his body was also heating up. His fingertips tingled and his neck felt stiff.

“At least no one carried you off.”

“I didn’t drink that much.”

It wasn’t a lie since he did drink. Two bottles of beer, far from a lethal dose. Woo Hyun-se tilted his head towards him and sniffed. Even though it didn’t touch his skin, his breath tickled like a feather. Si-yul giggled and hunched his shoulders. The tip of Woo Hyun-se’s nose almost touched his nape, but stopped just short of making contact.

“…Where did you drink?”

“Just a bar? I don’t remember the name.”

“Just a bar,” Woo Hyun-se repeated as if trying to understand. Unlike when he looked at the bottled drink Si-yul had given him, the corners of his mouth were now straight. As always, the difference between his smile and expressionless face was too extreme. Feeling as if the interior temperature had suddenly dropped by about 5 degrees, Si-yul wracked his brain, scared that he had done something wrong.

“You smell like shampoo.”

“What?”

“Did you shower?”

No, what kind of ghost-like… Woo Hyun-se should have become a shaman. Even without divine inspiration, he could have accurately read people’s inner thoughts with his innate senses. Si-yul’s face quickly turned pale. Trying not to show it, he turned his neck as far as he could to the side and glared out the window.

I went to a motel briefly to clean up because one of my friends threw up while we were drinking. How can you smell so well, better than a dog? You noticed right away. It was an appropriate excuse and line. He had it organized in his head, now he just needed to say it out loud.

“…Actually, I didn’t meet friends.”

But his mouth and head were not in sync. Throwing away the prepared lines, he blurted out an unexpected confession. He should have covered his mouth with his hand, but Si-yul just squeezed his eyes shut and let his mouth run on its own. While revealing the truth was daunting, it did feel somewhat relieving.

“Who else?”

“I don’t know. Just… someone to sleep with.”

Si-yul lowered his eyes, then looked at Woo Hyun-se’s reflection in the window, unable to face him directly. The other was looking at him. It was a rare expression of surprise. His furrowed brows and eyes were clearly filled with displeasure.

“You were going to roll around with some other bastard.”

Si-yul just nodded. Woo Hyun-se leaned his elbow on the window, covering his mouth with his hand as if hiding his feelings. Even so, his tightly clenched jaw was visible between his fingers. Although Si-yul couldn’t smell pheromones to know Woo Hyun-se’s exact state, he could feel the warm air in the car rapidly cooling.

“Didn’t you tell me to wait?”

His voice was cold too. Si-yul put his hands in his pockets and fidgeted with his fingers. He had a lot to say. Woo Hyun-se himself had slept with others during his rut, so what was wrong with Si-yul doing the same? He didn’t understand why the other was being so sharp.

“I tried to sleep with someone else, but it wasn’t good at all.”

Now his mouth seemed to have taken over his brain as well, as his actions followed his words. Si-yul took out the relatively smaller condom from the items he had been fiddling with and lightly tossed it onto the cup holder. Woo Hyun-se recognized what the box was and laughed as if in disbelief. It was certainly not a laugh of joy or pleasure.

“Shall we sleep together?”

Si-yul threw back the very words Woo Hyun-se had said to him. “Ha,” Woo Hyun-se let out a sardonic laugh. He roughly rubbed his mouth and tapped the steering wheel with his fingers. Si-yul’s throat burned, afraid that Woo Hyun-se might ask for time to think as he had done, or refuse.

“The thought of being a substitute makes me feel like shit, but I can’t refuse.”

He grabbed the condom box with his large hand. He crushed the box in his grip and threw it into the back seat. Si-yul’s eyes widened as he followed the trajectory of the crumpled box, then looked sharply at Woo Hyun-se. Before he could ask why, the other answered.

“That one doesn’t fit.”

“And the fact that you bought it to use with someone else pisses me off,” he added, grinding out the words. Woo Hyun-se started the car. As Si-yul hurriedly fastened his seatbelt, the other drove off roughly. He seemed to have already decided on a destination, as he drove without hesitation.